Should Hollywood shun Mel Gibson? Should the public shun him and boycott his movies? How many chances should one get when it starts to become clear that one is an anti-Semite? (For me it is clear, and my doubts about him have been confirmed). Is anything really more important in Hollywood than money?

by Ari Emanuel, huffingtonpost.com

"I wish Mel Gibson well in dealing with his alcoholism, but alcoholism does not excuse racism and anti-Semitism. It is one thing when marginal figures with no credibility make anti-Semitic statements. It is a completely different thing when a figure of Mel Gibson's stature does so. Even when he sobers up and apologizes.

According to the handwritten report of the deputy who pulled Gibson over, published by TMZ.com, after he was arrested Gibson launched into an anti-Semitic tirade, saying: "Fucking Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Gibson then asked the deputy, "Are you a Jew?"

At a time of escalating tensions in the world, the entertainment industry cannot idly stand by and allow Mel Gibson to get away with such tragically inflammatory statements. When The Passion of the Christ came out, Gibson was quoted as categorically denying any anti-Semitism attributed to him: "For me, it goes against the tenets of my faith, to be racist in any form. To be anti-Semitic is a sin. It's been condemned by one Papal Council after another. There's encyclicals on it, which is, you know -- to be anti-Semitic is to be unchristian, and I'm not."

Now we know the truth. And no amount of publicist-approved contrition can paper it over. People in the entertainment community, whether Jew or gentile, need to demonstrate that they understand how much is at stake in this by professionally shunning Mel Gibson and refusing to work with him, even if it means a sacrifice to their bottom line.

There are times in history when standing up against bigotry and racism is more important than money. "

Originally posted by Irvine511 I think Gibson is a decent actor, a very good director, who's completely bat-shit insane and has some sort of fetish for graphic violence for the sake of graphic violence. lots of beautiful men getting tortured by other men, often with their faces covered ... hmmmm ...

i shudder to think of all the 8 year olds who have been traumatized by the gore of "the passion" who were dragged to that movie by their parents.

I have to admit that I think Gibson is a little nutty. However, I strongly disagree that The Passion was a result fo Gibson having a fetish for violence. I believe him 100% when he said he wanted to show what Christ went through for the world's sake.

As for 8 year olds being dragged to see The Passion, I would agree that 8 years old should not see the movie. They are not old enough to understand it in its proper context. However, I don't think dragging 8 year olds to see the movie was a common practice at all. I think most parents have more common sense than that.

Originally posted by MrsSpringsteen Hmm, somehow I don't think this miniseries will be happening now

Should Hollywood shun Mel Gibson? Should the public shun him and boycott his movies? How many chances should one get when it starts to become clear that one is an anti-Semite? (For me it is clear, and my doubts about him have been confirmed). Is anything really more important in Hollywood than money?
"

I'm not sure whether anybody's personally held views should disqualify him or her from creating movies. I don't think anybody should be blacklisted for personal views.

That being said, it's up to the studios if they want to distribute
(or to him if he intends to distribute indepedently) and up to the moviegoers if they want to boycott. I could say I boycotted Woody Allen movies if I'd actually gone to one in the several years before the scandal broke.

But I don't think this is the guy who should be doing a Holocaust miniseries. Like Mrs. S. said though, I don't think that'll be happening anytime soon.

When Passion came out, many people immediately said it was anti-Semitic. I saw it with my Mom and found it so obviously offensive in parts. Why should it be suddenly a surprise that this guy holds these views? If you only want to see what you want to see, you'll never see beyond that.

This miniseries is probably dead in the water, as his overall career should be as well.

I did not find Passion to be Anti-Semitic. there were Jews and Gentiles in the crowd asking for the death of Christ. Yes he portrayed Pontious Pilot wrong. When you are on drugs(alchohal included) you say and do anything. If you don't like his films don't watch it.

No, you loose the inhibitions and you say what your thinking before realising that it was a dumb thing to say; his attitudes may have been more or less latent in the past, this only confirms them beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Originally posted by A_Wanderer No, you loose the inhibitions and you say what your thinking before realising that it was a dumb thing to say; his attitudes may have been more or less latent in the past, this only confirms them beyond a shadow of a doubt.

my understanding is that while he was legally drunk -- he blew a .12 and the limit is a .08 -- that is not drunk enough for someone to be speaking in tongues.

there have been many, many stories of how foul-mouthed and bigoted Gibson is. Christopher Hitchens wrote:

[q]This may seem like an oblique way in which to approach Mel Gibson's ghastly movie The Passion. But it came back to me this week that an associate of his had once told me, in lacerating detail, that an evening with Mel was one long fiesta of boring but graphic jokes about anal sex. I've since had that confirmed by other sources. And, long before he emerged as the spear-carrier for the sort of Catholicism once preached by Gen. Franco and the persecutors of Dreyfus, Mel Gibson attained a brief notoriety for his loud and crude attacks on gays. Now he's become the proud producer of a movie that relies for its effect almost entirely on sadomasochistic male narcissism.

My mother told me about the alcohol/anti-Semitic tirade. I'm honestly not shocked. I knew Gibson is a Catholic who rejects Vatican II. They're called "Traditionalists" because they want the Tridentine mass back. This isn't just about wanting a Latin mass. This is rejecting all of the changes made by Vatican II. One thing they did at Vatican II was draft a paper admitting that the Church had played a part in anti-Semitism and condemned anti-Semitism, saying it had no place in the Church. I was on a Catholic discussion board with some annoying Traditionalists. One of them made a blatantly anti-Semitic remark in a post. Before we knew it Jews were on our board wanting to know what the hell was going on. We went to the Jewish discussion board where they were from and disavowed anti-Semitism. We pointed out that the Vatican has recognized the state of Israel and we all personally said we had no tolerance of anti-Semitism. We got the job done. I have no patience with the Traditionalists, Gibson is one, therefore I have no use for Gibson.

Originally posted by anitram When Passion came out, many people immediately said it was anti-Semitic. I saw it with my Mom and found it so obviously offensive in parts. Why should it be suddenly a surprise that this guy holds these views? If you only want to see what you want to see, you'll never see beyond that.

I never saw The Passion, I don't need Mel Gibson or anyone else to show me Jesus beaten to a bloody pulp for two plus hours in order to know what Jesus and his sacrifice means to me. I know of his suffering, I don't need it depicted on screen in order to know that. But far more offensive to me is the thought that he used that movie as a vehicle in which to display his anti-Semitic thoughts and ideas. That goes against everything that I believe Jesus stands for and everything I believe in and stand for. I am certainly even more glad now that I never saw it.

It's a bit like if you go to Venice, and you see some of those Murano glass figurines of rabbis. One thing is to have one rowing a gondola but then you see one with a hooked nose that's holding a bag of money and grinning like a maniac and it's just inappropriate, IMO. Yes, the Jews of Venice were moneylenders hundreds of years ago, and yes, the stereotypical appearance probably does resemble the majority of European's Ashkenazi Jews, but it left me uneasy somehow to think I'd be bringing Shylock home with me. That's what Gibson's portrayal of the Jews in the movie reminded me of.